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How to save a life: WMS student rescues drowning brother

Two popular television series helped a local youth with an act of heroism — saving his younger brother’s life.
Representatives from Lima Memorial Hospital visited the Wapakoneta Middle School on Monday to present sixth-grade student Jake Turner with a Life-Saving Hero Award.
On Nov. 19, Jake rescued his two-year-old brother, Noah, who had fallen into a pond in their grandparents’ back yard in Lafayette, near Lima.
Jake and his siblings were playing outside, when all of a sudden his younger sister, Jenna, came running up to him and said that Noah had fallen into the pond.
“My four-year-old sister told me he (Noah) was in the water,” Jake said. “So, I go over there and jump in. I didn’t pause. I didn’t hesitate, I just ran and jumped in.”
All of the children were in the backyard playing, and Jake said the pond had a cage around it, but there was one spot that was damaged on the fencing and had an opening, which is the part that Noah has gotten through.
“We knew he could open doors, but not gates,” Jake said.
So when Jake waded into the water after his brother, he pulled him out and realized his brother needed mouth-to-mouth resuscitation because he was not responsive and not breathing.
“I saw if off of Hawaii Five-0 and CSI,” Jake said, explaining how he knew his brother needed CPR.
After Jake began giving Noah mouth-to-mouth ventilations, he began to catch his breath and started coughing and began to breathe again.
The rescue squad transported Noah to Lima Memorial Hospital, and the staff was very impressed with Jake’s actions.
“Not many 12-year-old kids know how to do CPR,” Lima Memorial Health System Emergency Room Coordinator Doug LaRue said. “ This is a prime example that CPR does save lives.”
LaRue along with Melanie Short, a nurse at Lima Memorial, and Matt Morgan, of the Allen County Sheriff’s Office and a deputy who was on the scene, presented Jake with the “Life-Saving Hero Award,” which is an award that is one-of-a-kind, as it has not been given to anyone else.
A school-wide assembly was held Monday to recognize Jake and to present him with a plaque for his bravery.
“We do awards every year for EMS,” LaRue said, “and we thought this was a special act as he had no training.”
As Jake noted he had picked up the skill of CPR from watching TV, and he said receiving this award feels great, but he is kind of “freaked out,” too.
Jake’s mother, Angela Mosler, said Jake has been having nightmares since the accident but they have been less frequent.
Mosler is grateful for her son’s heroic act.
“It’s unbelievable,” Mosler said.
After she heard about the news on that day in November, she was in complete shock.
“I feel like we had an angel that guided us that day,” Mosler said. “There is no thanks big enough from me to him.”
The measures that Jake took truly saved his brother, as Noah was unresponsive and not breathing.
“A lot of credit goes to the 12-year-old,” Allen County Sheriff Sam Crish said. “It’s amazing, really, being 12 years old and knowing what to do.”
Noah also is doing well today, all thanks to his “big brother.”